Chapter 21:
Paula awakened in the middle of a street in what looked to be her hometown of Twoson. This could not be right. Just a second ago she had fallen asleep inside of a palace that housed the final Sanctuary Guardians. She glanced to her sides, looking for any traces of her friends. She found none. She was alone. She rose and peered down the street, finding that it was occupied by strange creatures; one of which was a six-sided die with arms, legs, and wearing a top hat and holding a cane. Another was a set of red lips, puckered as if they were about to kiss someone. Given how Ness described his Magicant during the War Against Giygas, Paula figured that she was in her own Magicant. Paula glanced around the street once more and found it lined with homes and buildings that were familiar to her. She knew that her goal would be the Polestar Preschool. She carefully walked down the street, doing her best to avoid the enemies that were patrolling her street. Still, she drew out her Holy Frying Pan and mentally prepared herself for a fight.
Unfortunately, one of the enemies, a six-sided die instantly noticed her as she moved forward and proceeded to charge her. The six-sided die, what Ness had referred to as Loaded Dice, emitted a high-pitched scream. Paula knew that that was a call for help since it did not hurt her at all. Immediately, a Care Free Bomb, a creature with a round, green torso, a red triangle-shaped head, with gray arms and legs, appeared. Not even a couple of minutes into her Magicant and she was already in a fight. She knew that she needed to deal not only with the Loaded Dice, but the Care Free Bomb that it had summoned. One look at the Care Free Bomb told her that it would likely explode upon its destruction, which would be hazardous to Paula. As such, she quickly drew out one of her Super Bombs and tossed it at the two enemies, hoping that it would be sufficient to deal with them. The Super Bomb arced in the air towards the enemies as the Care Free Bomb drew out a Super Bomb of its own and prepared to toss it at Paula. Just as the Care Free Bomb had wound up and was about to make the pitch, Paula's Super Bomb landed right next to the Care Free Bomb and exploded. The bomb's explosion also detonated the Super Bomb inside the Care Free Bomb's hand as well, which blew apart the Care Free Bomb. The Loaded Dice also was caught in the explosions, but he did not suffer quite as much damage as the Care Free Bomb did. As a result, he was still alive, and could still call on allies for help. He was about to make another call when Paula ran up to the dice with her frying pan held high and she brought the frying pan down onto the dice's body. The dice's body cracked and it began to stagger backwards. Paula then performed a side kick to the dice and knocked it to the ground and onto its back. One final bash with her frying pan was all that was needed to finish off the dice.
After the fight, Paula ran down the street, trying to get her bearing so that she could at the very least find her Magicant's representation of home. She had a feeling as if that was her desired destination. As she charged down the street, she was accosted by two sets of red lips that, according to Ness's description from his own Magicant, were called French Kisses of Death. Paula did not want to engage in a protracted battle against these creatures, so she simply powered a blast of PSI Thunder Omega in her hands and unleashed the lightning attack on the two sets of lips. The lightning struck the lips and electricity arced across the two enemies. The enemies, however, made no noises or movements at all that indicated that they were in pain. Still, after a few seconds, the lips fell to the ground and faded into nothingness. Paula then rushed down the street once more, hoping to get to the center of her Magicant as quickly as possible. She suddenly had a terrible feeling that something had gone horribly wrong in the outside world, which only caused her to quicken her pace.
As she reached a street corner, she found a street sign. The sign read, Tranquility Street. Paula had a feeling that she was headed in the right direction for her house. Even though the street names were off, she recognized the appearance of the street, and she could see the lights of the Chaos Theater off in the distance. She opened her telepathic senses to find another Loaded Dice walking around on the street. Not wanting to have to deal with his reinforcements, Paula quickly powered a blast of PSI Freeze Omega. As the snowflake formed over her head, the Loaded Dice looked in her direction and noticed her. The Loaded Dice immediately emitted its high-pitched scream and an Uncontrollable Sphere, a black sphere with purple lips twisted into a smile, soon appeared next to it. Paula launched the blast of PSI Freeze Omega towards the Loaded Dice, viewing it as the more serious threat, despite its lack of demonstrated attacks. The Loaded Dice made no attempt to avoid the attack, while the Uncontrollable Sphere floated away from the icy snowflake of psychic energy as it streaked towards the Loaded Dice. Paula tried to divert her PSI Freeze Omega so that it would ensnare both of the enemies. The PSI Freeze Omega attack detonated close enough to the Loaded Dice to encase it in ice, but the Uncontrollable Sphere was too far away to suffer any damage from the explosion. Paula, seeing the Uncontrollable Sphere zip away from the explosion, quickly charged a blast of PSI Thunder Gamma in her hands and unleashed it against the explosive sphere, knowing that it was too far away for the explosion to affect her. The lightning leapt from her fingers and almost instantly struck the Uncontrollable Sphere. The Thunder attack was sufficient to inflict fatal damage to the sphere, which promptly exploded in midair. Once the battle had concluded, Paula glanced around her and found no further enemies in the vicinity. She then took this opportunity to catch her breath before continuing down the street towards the Chaos Theater.
Along the street, she noticed a pair of Electro Swooshes, enemies that consisted of a pair of eyes with lightning bolts above them forming eyebrows, approaching. Paula quickly used her telepathy to scan them and she discovered that they were somewhat vulnerable to PSI Freeze. As such, she powered a snowflake of PSI Freeze Omega and unleashed it against the two electric-based enemies. The snowflake of psychic energy quickly soared into the air and right at the two electrical enemies. Before the Electro Swooshes could react or retaliate, the snowflake of psychic energy exploded between the two enemies, encasing them in a block of ice. The ice block proceeded to fall to the ground, where it shattered into thousands of shards. Once this skirmish was over, Paula continued on her way.
It was not long before Paula arrived at the Chaos Theater. She looked up at the advertising display that showed the acts that were going to be performed. She saw that there was an act titled, The Chosen Four's Demise, starring Giygas, Ness, Paula Polestar, Jeff Andonuts, and Poo. Playing now. Another title just underneath of it was, Paula's Awakening, starring Paula Polestar. Playing whenever she gets to the Polestar Preschool. That was enough to convince Paula that not only were her friends in trouble, but that she was on the right track. Paula ran past the theater and at the end of the street, turned right. She then continued down the street, taking out two French Kisses of Death that had tried to accost her along the way.
Once Paula had dealt with the French Kisses of Death, the rest of the way was clear. While she encountered no further resistance, she did, however, find a gift box along the road. She stooped down and opened the box. Inside were two Magic Truffles. Remembering that when Ness had consumed items in Magicant that they disappeared in the real world, she took the Magic Truffles and proceeded to eat them. She felt a refreshing wave of energy wash over her as she devoured the truffles. Once she was refreshed, all that was left to do was to head down to the Polestar Preschool and hopefully unlock her true power.
Paula continued down the deserted street until she came upon the Polestar Preschool. The school building, itself, did not look particularly disheveled or pristine. In fact, it looked quite normal. For a second, she began to wonder if this was really the target she should have been going for. Still, she remembered what she had just read on the billboard above the Chaos Theater. Viewing that as her best lead, she proceeded to make her way around the building and to the front.
Once she arrived at the front of the Polestar Preschool, instead of the door leading into the school, and her home, she found a swirl of white energy, just like the swirls of Sanctuary energy. She opened her telepathic senses again and felt that there was something on the other side of this portal. She immediately stepped into the swirl of energy and felt herself get whisked away to a new location.
When she appeared in the new location, she found herself on a rock in the middle of a sea of purple liquid. Looking into the distance, she was able to spot a larger island that was made of stone. Looking out over the sea, closer to her own stone, she saw a series of stepping stones that seemed to lead out to the island. She hopped along each of the stones, being careful not to step into what looked to be purple water. She did not want to take any chances here. She carefully stepped from one stone to the next, all the way to the island. When she reached the island, she saw a golden statue that seemed to resemble the Evil Mani Mani Statue that had caused so much trouble in Fourside during the War Against Giygas. As she approached the statue, the golden statue cracked and broke apart, revealing Paula's worst nightmare, an evil version of herself. This version of Paula still had blond hair, but wore a glittering black mini-dress with shiny black dress shoes. This Paula had no ribbon in her hair, letting it fall down to her shoulders, but she did wear red lipstick. She also had a belt with a knife on it. She drew the knife and brought it to her mouth, where she licked the blade sadistically. The fake Paula then grinned sadistically at the real one. "Hey there, Paula Polestar," the fake Paula said, in a sadistic tone that only served to unnerve the real Paula. "I'm Your Nightmare. I am everything you're afraid of becoming. I'm your dark side." She then grinned and flashed her eyes. "I'm gonna make you strip your friends of their free will and make them do everything you command, without any chance to resist. I'll have you kill everyone you don't like. Either that or again, make them your mind slaves. Whenever a child annoys you, I'll make you control that child and make him or her perform…"
"Enough!" Paula cried out, and she lashed out in rage at Her Nightmare with a blast of PSI Thunder. Paula had instantly unleashed the attack at its Omega level, something that had never happened before. The lightning attack took Paula's Nightmare by surprise and she cried out as she was struck by the attack, her PSI Shield Beta collapsing instantly upon being hit by the lightning. Lightning arced around her body as she was thrown backwards a few yards. However, Paula's Nightmare was far from finished. Once the lightning stopped sparking around her body, Paula's Nightmare looked at her hands, and then down at her chest.
"Well, I must say that I'm impressed," she noted, taking stock of the damage that Paula's attack had inflicted on her. "I never knew that you could do something like that."
Even Paula was surprised by her strength. Not only that, but she had used significantly less psychic energy in that attack than she had previously with PSI Thunder Omega, even though the attack was just as strong, if not stronger, than any of her previous PSI Thunder Omega attacks. Paula grinned for a second before refocusing back on Her Nightmare. She had the edge now, but she did not want to surrender it at all.
Paula's next move was to power a PSI Shield Beta over herself. She had enough psychic energy left to do that and still launch several more powerful psychic attacks. As she did so, Her Nightmare began powering a ball of PSI Thunder Omega. Paula knew that if she did not avoid this attack, that her psychic counter shield would be neutralized. As such, Paula began to move in order to make herself a more difficult target to hit, while she began to power a blast of PSI Fire, knowing that Her Nightmare must have had the same vulnerability to fire that she did. Her Nightmare unleashed a stream of PSI Thunder at her just as Paula unleashed her ball of PSI Fire Omega at the Nightmare. Paula's rapid and evasive movements, along with Paula's Nightmare's own evasive countermeasures as well as the ball of PSI Fire Omega, prevented Paula's Nightmare from being able to get an accurate fix on her location. As a result, the bolts of PSI Thunder Omega that had erupted from her fingers did not manage to strike Paula, or damage her psychic counter shield. The same could not be said about Paula's PSI Fire attack, though. Paula managed to guide her attack home onto Her Nightmare. The ball of PSI Fire Omega struck Paula's Nightmare and exploded, engulfing her in flames. Paula's Nightmare cried out in agony and quickly rolled onto the ground in order to extinguish the flames. Unfortunately, for the Nightmare, though, Paula took advantage of this opportunity to launch a blast of PSI Thunder Omega, which used up less psychic energy than PSI Fire. Lightning erupted from Paula's fingertips once more, lashing out at the burning Paula's Nightmare. The lightning struck Paula's Nightmare, inflicting even more damage. Eventually, Paula's Nightmare rose from the ground, but burns and blisters now covered her entire body, her face a mask of rage and anguish.
"Look at what you've done!" she cried out, bursting into tears. "You've ruined my form!"
Paula's Nightmare then charged another attack of PSI Thunder and was about to unleash it on Paula when another blast of PSI Fire came her way. This one, however, was only at its Gamma level, which would be more than enough if it made contact with the Nightmare. Upon seeing the blast of PSI Fire Gamma, Paula's Nightmare swore, "Oh crap!" She deftly dodged the cone of flame that was headed her way, but Paula swept her hand across the field of battle. The Nightmare tried to evade the fire, but Paula kept track of her and as Her Nightmare tried to roll beneath the cone of flames, Paula lowered the cone and the flames made contact with the Nightmare's skin. Paula's Nightmare was set ablaze once more and roared in agony and rage as she tried to stand. Eventually, she was able to stand and, knowing that Paula's psychic counter shield was still active, gave out one last cry of rage before collapsing to the ground and letting the flames of Paula's PSI Fire Gamma consume her.
After the battle was over, and the body of Paula's Nightmare reduced to nothing but ashes, a swirl of white energy appeared over the ashes of Paula's Nightmare. Paula knew that this was her destination, and the true center of her Magicant. As she stepped into the swirl of energy, she felt power rush over her. The images of each and every one of the Sanctuaries flooded into her mind in less than an instant. She could see the Snow Wood Boarding School, the Gold Mine in Dusty Dunes Desert, the tunnel in the New York City Subway System, the area in the Atlantic Ocean where Atlantis once stood, the Scaraban Pyramid, the Faerie World, Lava Mountain, and now the Palace inside the moon. Paula also knew that the swirl of energy inside the base took them to the palace inside Earth's moon, the final resting place of the remaining Eldest and their dragon steeds. The power then washed over her and entered her body, mind, and soul. Paula suddenly felt a power the likes of which she had never known before as the energy from each of the Sanctuaries flooded into her. Her stores of psychic energy were fully replenished, and more. She felt the power that she could wield using her elemental PSI increase greatly, and not only increase, but she consumed less energy with each attack as well, pushing all of her energy into said attacks rather than wasting it generating the power. It was a sensation that Paula had never felt before, and it was magnificent. "So this is what you felt when you conquered your Magicant and unlocked the Sanctuaries' power," Paula said to an image of Ness inside her mind. She smiled and almost laughed at the sensation. She now knew her true limits and could fight to her full potential. She knew that she would need would get even stronger as she got older and gained more experience, but right now, she could feel her power peaking. It was then that Paula felt he sensation of being whisked away from where she was standing once more. And she knew that it was time to wake up. Her friends needed her, now more than ever.
While Paula was inside her Magicant, Poo also awakened on top of a tall hill. He looked around and saw what looked to be a microcosm of Dalaam standing out before him. He recognized several of the houses and could see the palace in the distance a few hundred yards away. He quickly realized that this was a representation of the hill that he had taken his final Mu test on. He then looked out over the seeming replica of Dalaam and focused on the trail leading up to the palace. He saw that the trail was crawling with beings, seemingly humanoid, that he did not recognize. He extended his psychic senses to try to ascertain whether or not they had psychic powers, but he could not tell one way or the other. He also tried to see if there was any Sanctuary energy emanating from this place, managing to find a strange energy signature coming from the direction of the palace. He then looked around and sensed nothing unusual from any other location, except for the fact that there was nothing to sense at all in those areas. Poo quickly decided that he would not get far merely standing on top of the hill, so he proceeded to climb down the rope in front of him and proceeded to make his way towards the palace.
Once he climbed down the mountain, he turned and standing before him was a humanoid figure dressed in an all black ninja uniform, complete with a mask that only revealed his enemy's eyes. The figure had a sword strapped to his back and upon spotting the Dalaamese prince, drew the weapon, a ninjato. This prompted Poo to draw his own sword and hold it out in front of his body in a defensive position.
"Who are you? What do you want?" Poo called out to the unknown humanoid figure. He could not sense any psychic power emanating from the figure, but he knew that the figure was still a dangerous fighter. The figure answered Poo's question when he charged the teen and tried to decapitate him. Poo managed to dodge the blade and jump away from the attacker. Poo raised his sword as the Evil Ninja attacked once more, this time by tossing shuriken at Poo. The throwing stars, while they would not have normally been fatal, were thrown at amazing velocity, enough to inflict serious damage against a normal. However, Poo was not a normal, though he still did not want to test his durability, or the killing power of the shuriken. He raised his blade and blocked the shuriken, deflecting them off of his blade. The ninja, seeing that the shuriken were ineffective, then charged Poo and tried to decapitate him once more. Poo dodged the blow and counterattacked. His riposte caught the ninja in the side. He then pulled his sword back to him, cutting the ninja. The Evil Ninja fell to the ground, dead. Upon dying, the ninja's body disappeared. Poo then walked past the scene of the battle and turned to his right to follow the trail to the palace.
As he was walking along the trail, he found another warrior standing before him. This time, the warrior was wearing samurai armor and wielding a katana. However, the exposed skin of the warrior was a deathly gray and the eyes were sickly green. The Deathly Samurai drew his yumi bow and strung an arrow to it. Poo was familiar with the weapon and raised a Shield Alpha over his body. He did not want to waste any energy against these warriors, strongly suspecting that there would be far tougher challenges ahead that might require his considerable psychic powers. He merely drew his sword and charged the Deathly Samurai. The samurai fired his bow and arrow and the arrow streaked towards Poo, emitting a whistle. The arrow struck Poo's shield and bounced off of it, inflicting no damage to Poo or to his shield. The Deathly Samurai, seeing that his bow and arrow was insufficient to penetrate Poo's defenses, quickly retreated and was soon joined by two more of his kind, each of them armed with identical weaponry. Poo did not alter his course. He was confident that with his shield up, he would be able to defeat the three Deathly Samurai with relative ease.
As a single unit, the three Deathly Samurai took aim and fired their bows at Poo. Arrows shrieked towards Poo, only to glance off of his shield. Poo then began his counterattack. He quickly arrived at the first Deathly Samurai and he thrust his sword into the samurai's chest. Poo's Sword of Kings pierced the armor the Deathly Samurai was wearing and managed to bite into the flesh of the enemy soldier. Poo pushed against his blade and his blade bit further into the enemy's body. A green light shown around the wound and the Deathly Samurai dropped his weapons and went limp. As Poo retracted his blade from the Deathly Samurai's body, the green light became brighter and greenish gases and energy leaked out from the wound. The Deathly Samurai fell to the ground and stopped moving. After the Samurai stopped moving, his body disappeared. Poo then focused his attention on the other two Deathly Samurai. He charged the Deathly Samurai to the right of the fallen warrior and with blinding speed rushed in and swung at the Deathly Samurai's neck. With a single swing, Poo managed to decapitate the second Deathly Samurai with a clean cut. The head of the Deathly Samurai flew off his shoulders, but only green light was emitted from the wounds, which promptly faded as the creature quickly died. The now headless Deathly Samurai fell to the ground and the body, and head, promptly vanished into thin air. That left only one Deathly Samurai left.
The remaining Deathly Samurai, seeing that he was no match for Poo, decided that a frontal assault was his only option. As such, the Deathly Samurai raised his sword high and emitted a loud war cry and charged the teen. Poo was not impressed and he quickly charged in counter to the Deathly Samurai. Poo was far faster than the non-human creature and with a single swing of his sword he decapitated the remaining Deathly Samurai. Once the battle was over, Poo bowed towards his fallen opponent, which was in the process of fading away. He did not do so in a condescending manner at all. He merely did so out of respect for the opponents and their power. Once that was done, Poo continued on his course towards the palace, and what he hoped was the goal of this exercise.
Poo continued to walk along the trail. Before reaching the fork in the path, he encountered another Evil Ninja, which he dispatched with contemptuous ease. Once he reached the fork in the path, he proceeded to his right. Since this was like a miniature version of Dalaam, he knew the path to the palace, so he suspected that he would not be getting lost on the way. As he proceeded along the path, he sensed a group of enemies approaching, which surprised him since they did not give off any psychic or magical echoes. Poo quickly prepared for another battle as a quartet of soldiers that were armed with machine guns, with one of them even having a rocket propelled grenade launcher, came out to face him. They wore masks over their faces.
Poo, not knowing for certain whether the soldiers were friend or foe, called over to them, asking, "Who are you?"
The leader of the soldiers, the one with the RPG, answered, "Your enemy."
The leader then raised his RPG and targeted Poo with it. Poo immediately raised a Shield Beta, remembering that the psychic cost between a Shield Alpha and a Shield Beta was not all that great, and these soldiers each had good long ranged weapons that might damage his Shield Alpha. The lead soldier then fired his RPG and the grenade erupted from the launcher and targeted Poo. Poo could sense the grin on the soldier's face as he fired his grenade. The grenade streaked towards Poo and came within inches of hitting him before impacting Poo's counter shield. Poo's shield flared as the grenade struck the shield and rebounded off of it, being thrown back to the soldiers, tumbling as it flew. The soldiers tried to flee the incoming projectile, but they were too slow. The grenade landed among them and exploded, killing them. Two of the Incompetent Enemy Soldiers were blown to pieces by the explosion, while the others were shredded by shrapnel and/or killed by the shockwave of the explosion. Once the battle was over, Poo walked past the scene. Before leaving, though, he stooped down to check the condition of the RPG launcher. He saw several metallic shards sticking out of the weapon and decided that it was not worth the risk. He pulled out his katana and with a single stab, scuttled the launcher, making sure that any enemy that may come up from behind could not use it against him. He also did this with the guns that the soldiers had wielded. Once he was finished dealing with the soldiers' weapons, he continued on his way to the palace.
Poo followed the path to the palace up the mountain, facing sporadic resistance from Evil Ninjas and Deathly Samurai, dealing with them all with single swipes of his sword. After they had been dealt with, he continued on his journey. When he came to a house with a straw roof, he took a left and encountered another ninja. This ninja, however, was different, for Poo sensed a sort of power emanating from this soldier. The soldier spun around, holding out his hand in a cupped position. Just then, he witnessed fire form in the palm of his hand and the ninja shoved his other hand out towards Poo. Poo was already moving to his right when the fire lashed out towards him, missing him by scant inches. Poo still felt the rush of heat flow past his body as the air around the fire was heated by the passing flame. Poo gritted his teeth. The Magic Ninja then performed a series of hand movements that resembled signs of some sort. Poo then noticed electricity begin to crackle across the ninja's fingertips. Seeing no other option, Poo decided that he could not take this opponent lightly. He could still win holding back, but it would cost him needlessly. He then powered a blast of PSI Thunder at its Beta level. He quickly targeted the Magic Ninja and fired his blast of PSI Thunder just as the ninja launched two massive lightning attacks shaped like a dragon at Poo. Poo did not have a Franklin Badge, so he knew that if he was hit, that he would suffer severe injuries from the attacks. Still, he was quite powerful, himself and had confidence in his abilities to push back the Magic Ninja's lightning attack. Poo's blast of PSI Thunder Beta struck the lightning dragons and the lightning dragons were suspended in midair for a few moments before being pushed back by Poo's attack. The Magic Ninja, however, stood his ground and tried to push more power into his attack. It was too little, too late, though. The Magic Ninja could not withstand Poo's power and soon, his magical lightning dragons were pushed back to him where they struck him, along with Poo's own PSI Thunder Beta, and exploded into spheres of lightning. The two attacks were sufficient to kill the Magic Ninja, electrocuting him and frying him to a crisp. The Magic Ninja promptly collapsed into a pile of ashes, which quickly vanished into thin air. Once the battle was over, Poo once again continued on his way.
It was not long before Poo turned to his right once more and followed the path up the hill, and towards a clearing. Once he arrived at the clearing, he looked to his left and found the palace. Upon approaching the palace, four Magic Ninjas appeared in front of him, blocking his path. Each of them powered an attack of a different element: one fire, one water, one ground, and one lightning. Poo, however, was not in the mood for a protracted battle, so he powered a blast of PSI Starstorm Alpha in order to deal with these enemies. A dozen blue orbs of energy appeared around his body and once they had formed, he unleashed them at the enemy ninjas. The Magic Ninjas saw the assault coming and, knowing that they were doomed, launched their attacks anyway, hoping that one of the attacks might get through and cause Poo to waste more of his psychic energy. Their attacks, however, were unable to get through the barrage of stars. The stars rocketed through and blocked the ninjas' attacks. Soon the stars fell among the ninjas, vaporizing the ninjas with single hits. When the battle was finished, all that was left were a series of craters created by the Starstorm barrage.
After the battle, Poo proceeded to enter the palace. Upon entering the palace, he found himself in a familiar corridor. The walls were lined with bricks and a red carpet led to the throne room at the other end of the hall. Poo glanced around at his surroundings, trying to make certain that there were no enemies lurking in the hallway. So far, he found none. As such, Poo continued on his way to the throne room. When he reached the end of the hall, he came upon a set of large golden doors. Poo pushed open the doors and walked through into the throne room.
Inside the throne room, he looked at the golden throne before him at the other end of the room. He could see a masked figure sitting on the throne. Besides the mask, the figure was wearing a regal purple robe, signifying the fact that he was a king. As Poo crossed the distance between the doors and the throne, the figure removed his mask and revealed himself to be none other than Poo.
"So, you've come," Poo's doppelganger said, rising from the throne and stepping down to meet Poo. "I must say that I'm not all that surprised. The defenses I mounted against you were less than stellar, I must admit. Still, I was hoping that you'd be weaker than you are now." His eyes then flashed.
"Who are you?" Poo asked forcefully.
"I am Your Nightmare," Poo's double responded. "I am the evil in your heart and soul. I am what you fear to become when you use your full power and tower over the other worthless mortals. And now, I am going to destroy you and take over your body. Prepare for oblivion!"
Poo gritted his teeth. He was not about to let the evil inside his soul take over his body. He decided that the best course of action would be to open up with a psychic attack, knowing that if this doppelganger was, indeed, His Nightmare, that he would have all of his own psychic powers and abilities, which meant no psychic shields of any kind. Poo opened with a blast of PSI Starstorm Omega, not wanting to hold back against His Nightmare. He immediately powered the attack and dozens of blue energy orbs formed around Poo. Poo's Nightmare also powered a blast of PSI Starstorm Omega. Once Poo was ready, he unleashed his attack against His Nightmare. The stars rocketed towards His Nightmare, who refused to move, seeing that his only chance at avoiding damage was to power his attack to full and unleash it to counter Poo's own. Poo's attack, however, reached the Nightmare before he could power his Starstorm Omega to full power, so Poo's Nightmare had to make due with what he had, which was not nearly enough against the overwhelming power of Poo's Starstorm Omega. The stars converged onto Poo's Nightmare and struck him, one right after the other. Poo's Nightmare tried to at least blunt the blow, but the first hit was enough to disrupt his concentration, causing his stars to vanish into thin air. Poo's Nightmare proceeded to curl his arms around himself in an attempt to limit the damage, but each impact managed to push the Nightmare farther backwards. Eventually, he was thrown into his throne. Poo quickly followed up with a blast of PSI Thunder Omega, which struck the Nightmare and caused his throne to topple over with the force of the impact. Lightning arced around Poo's Nightmare's body as he struggled to rise and launch a counterattack.
Eventually, the Nightmare rose and launched a blast of PSI Freeze Gamma, forgetting for a time that Poo was actually strong against PSI Freeze attacks. The fact that he was wearing a Diadem of Kings, which significantly blunted the damage dealt by Freeze attacks did not help the Nightmare, either. With his already strong resistance to Freeze, Poo suffered no severe injuries when the snowflake exploded and showered him with cold winds and snowflakes of psychic energy. He merely felt a little cold, as if he had been walking in the snow with his summer clothing for a few seconds. Other than that, he was fine.
Poo, however, did not make such a mistake against His Nightmare, though. Poo continued to use his strongest psychic attacks against the Nightmare. He powered a second barrage of PSI Starstorm and when it was finished forming, Poo unleashed it against His Nightmare. Poo's Nightmare responded by launching a blast of PSI Thunder Omega at Poo, knowing that his Diadem of Kings would not blunt the damage dealt by lightning attacks. While Poo had managed to launch the attack, just as his attack struck the Nightmare, the Nightmare's attack struck Poo. Lightning arced across Poo's body and he grunted as he fell to one knee. Still, he was able to ground much of the electricity and he was not fatally injured. Poo quickly used Lifeup Beta on himself to heal the damage, and to make sure that he would be able to survive another attack that came his way. His Nightmare, however, was looking far worse for the wear. As the blast cloud cleared, it was evident that the Nightmare's body was smoking. There were also numerous cuts, bruises, and burns marking the body of Poo's Nightmare. Despite all the damage the Nightmare had sustained, he was not ready to give up just yet. Poo's Nightmare still had a chance of winning this fight. He immediately used Lifeup Gamma on himself to heal the damage that he had suffered. The Nightmare then grinned at Poo. He was far from finished, and Poo had used up a significant portion of his psychic power. Still, Poo was far from finished too.
Poo quickly realized that this battle would come down to who ran out of psychic power first. So far, Poo had used up more energy than His Nightmare, but his Nightmare may have been able to be forced to use up more energy for healing. Poo also decided that now was the perfect time to prepare for when this fight would become a physical battle. He raised a Shield Beta over himself, which surprised His Nightmare to no end.
"A Shield Beta against psychic attacks?" Poo's Nightmare mocked. "You must be nuts!"
Poo's Nightmare then proceeded to power a barrage of Starstorm Omega. Poo promptly began to run around the throne room, making himself a difficult target, while drawing out a Super Bomb. He pushed the activation stud on the bomb and tossed it at His Nightmare. Poo's Nightmare noticed the bomb coming towards him, which prompted him to jump out of the way. The moment his feet left the air, Poo grinned. He knew exactly where his enemy was going to land. Poo's Nightmare fired off the barrage of PSI Starstorm Omega as he was flying through the air. However, due to his movement, he had difficulty targeting Poo, and most of his stars missed Poo by a mile. A few, however, managed to land near Poo, causing him to weave around them on his path to where Poo's Nightmare would land. As Poo's Nightmare landed, Poo arrived and thrust his sword into His Nightmare's abdomen. A look of pain and shock crossed Poo's Nightmare's face as he looked down at his wound, and then at Poo. Poo soon withdrew his blade and attempted to decapitate his enemy. The Nightmare, however, raised his own blade to block Poo's. A smile twisted his lips. He quietly said, "Lifeup Gamma." A sucking sound was heard and the Nightmare's wound closed. The Nightmare looked at Poo again and yelled, "PSI Starstorm Omega! One more time!"
Dozens of blue stars formed around the Nightmare. Poo did not know how much psychic energy he had compared to His Nightmare, but he hoped that it would be enough. Poo quickly powered his PSI Starstorm Omega in order to counter His Nightmare's attack. Once the two attacks were fully powered, the two enemies unleashed them against one another. The two barrages of stars collided in midair with each other, forming massive explosions, and sending up clouds of dust. The attacks were evenly matched, as neither attacker's stars managed to get through to strike their target. Poo, however, could sense the location of his opponent, so he rushed his opponent once more and drew his sword. When he arrived, he tried to decapitate him and bring the battle to a swift end, but the Nightmare managed to back away far enough so that Poo only managed to cut the Nightmare's throat. While a wound like that would have been fatal to a normal, eventually; Poo's Nightmare was not a normal. His Nightmare promptly used Lifeup Gamma once more, restoring himself to perfect health. The Nightmare then grinned at Poo once again.
"Nothing you do will last, Poo. I'll just regenerate from all the damage you inflict on me. You may as well give up now," he mocked.
Poo did not take the bait, though. Everything was going according to plan. He knew that he could defeat His Nightmare. All he needed to do was to get His Nightmare to use up all of his psychic energy. The Nightmare was eager to oblige Poo by firing a barrage of PSI Thunder Omega at the boy. Poo used his psychically enhanced reflexes and speed to dodge the lightning, causing it to miss entirely. Poo smiled, things were going well for him. With His Nightmare now wasting his psychic energy against him, chances were better that he would be the one with psychic energy remaining at the end of the fight. All Poo had to do was to get him to waste more psychic power.
Poo's Nightmare decided to end this fight once and for all by powering a blast of PSI Starstorm Omega. Poo smiled, knowing what was to come. He had already been weakened from his previous battles, and he had already used up much of his psychic energy, but he still had enough to use Lifeup Gamma. He only had to time the use of his technique correctly. The stars fell down among Poo and exploded, prompting Poo to use the Lifeup Gamma on himself. He felt each impact from the stars as each impact knocked him backwards; the only thing keeping him from suffering more severe injuries was the Lifeup Gamma. Despite the power of the Nightmare's attack, the stars were unable to kill him, and when the barrage was over, while the throne room was pock-marked with craters, Poo remained alive and well, while Poo's Nightmare had used up almost all of his psychic energy. He no longer had the psychic strength to power a PSI Starstorm Omega. He suddenly realized that this was Poo's plan all along. Poo had gotten him to use up all of his psychic energy attacking him foolishly while Poo had chosen the times in which he would attack. The Nightmare gritted his teeth. He, however, deduced from the fact that Poo had yet to launch a PSI Starstorm Omega attack of his own at the moment that he, too, did not have enough psychic energy to use such an attack against him. Poo's Nightmare grinned. He still had a chance.
Poo's Nightmare quickly powered a Shield Beta over himself that would reflect all non-psychic attacks back at the user. This was his first step. The next step was to use his remaining psychic power to power a blast of PSI Thunder in order to collapse Poo's own normal shield. This would allow him to attack Poo directly. He powered a blast of PSI Thunder Omega and unleashed it against Poo from his fingertips. Lightning streaked from his fingertips and lashed out at Poo. Poo managed to dodge some of the lightning, but one of the bolts managed to hit, collapsing his shield but not causing any significant damage to Poo. Poo fell to one knee. Poo's Nightmare grinned. He had him now. Now, there was nothing Poo could do.
Poo's Nightmare used his last bit of psychic energy to power a PSI Starstorm Alpha barrage to unleash against Poo. As he was powering the stars, he called down to Poo, "It's over Poo! You're out of psychic energy and don't have the power to counter my attack! I've won!"
It was then that Poo grinned. "Wrong," he said, too quietly for Poo's Nightmare to hear. However, Poo's Nightmare soon learned why Poo was grinning when he began to power a Starstorm Omega attack. Poo's Nightmare's eyes flashed at the sight and he swore. Poo had not been conserving psychic power just because he was low, he was doing so so that he could launch a final attack when the Nightmare had used up all of his power and, thus, could not defend against Poo's final attack. Poo's Nightmare saw that he could do nothing except try to take out Poo before Poo took him out. He unleashed his Starstorm barrage on Poo just as Poo had finished powering his own Starstorm Omega barrage. Poo unleashed his own Starstorm to counter His Nightmare's Starstorm barrage. The two attacks streaked towards each other and collided in midair. The stronger Starstorm Omega, however, was easily able to power through the weaker Starstorm Alpha and despite the large numbers of explosions in midair, a large number of the stars managed to get through and strike Poo's Nighmare.
The Nightmare was driven back with each hit, the first one merely knocking the wind out of him. The second star struck and exploded, tossing him backwards through the air. The Nightmare landed on his head, cracking his skull and knocking him unconscious. The third and fourth stars were the ones to finish him off. The third star struck him and drilled a hole into his chest, while the fourth star followed closely after and struck him in the head and exploded, vaporizing the body of Poo's Nightmare. The rest of the stars merely cratered the remains of the throne room. Once the attack was finished, the battle had ended. Poo emerged victorious.
Just over where Poo's Nightmare had been when he had been destroyed, a swirl of white energy appeared. Poo could sense that this was the energy signature that he had sensed before, and was likely his ticket back to the others, for he sensed that something terrible was happening. As such, he quickly stepped into the vortex and let the light overtake him.
Inside the vortex, he was able to hear the final notes of the Eight Melodies song. He heard the song play back in its entirety. After the song had played, the images of all eight Sanctuaries flooded into his mind. He visualized each and every one of them and could sense the energy emanating from them. He also sensed their power and energy flowing into his own body. As the energy came onto him and entered his body, mind, and soul, he felt his own power increase dramatically. While he did not learn any new moves, he could feel himself being able to increase the damage dealt by his techniques while using only a fraction of the psychic power he used to. He also felt more psychic energy enter his own body as well, along with an increase to his health and stamina as well. "So this is what it was like for Ness," he said, remembering how Ness described the sensation of being powered up from beating His Nightmare during the War Against Giygas. Once the images left his mind, Poo felt himself being whisked away again, and back to the palace in the moon.
Back inside the palace, while Giygas was toying with Jeff, Paula was the first of the human psychics to awaken. When she awakened, she quickly looked around for her friends, and saw Giygas telekinetically strangling Jeff. She was horrified at the sight. What was Giygas doing? Why was he attacking Jeff? Had Ness been right all along? All of these questions raced through her mind as she quickly powered a blast of PSI Thunder and unleashed it against Giygas, hoping to distract him from Jeff and cause him to release her friend. The lightning struck Giygas and did not interact with a shield of any sort. This surprised Paula, who had suspected that Giygas would have had a shield already up. Giygas was thrown through the air by Paula's attack and he landed a few yards away. The attack was more than enough to release Jeff from Giygas's grip. Paula rushed over to help Jeff get up. They then turned to face Giygas.
"Why are you doing this?" Paula asked furiously. "I thought we were allies!"
Giygas merely laughed. "For a time, I actually had sided with you against my people," Giygas told her. "But a conversation with my father convinced me that my place was with them. It is my people's mandate, their destiny, their purpose, to rid the universe of any other psychic species. We cannot allow a power greater than our own to exist."
"So you'll just continue to go throughout the universe wiping out every single race you come across?" Paula grilled.
"Yes," Giygas answered succinctly. He then unleashed a blast of lightning at Paula, but she raised a PSI Shield Sigma over herself and Jeff. Giygas grinned as the lightning streaked towards her, but as it struck them, something that neither Giygas, nor Paula, had expected. Paula's psychic shield stopped the lightning before it had managed to strike either Paula or Jeff. It splashed against shield harmlessly and was deflected away. Both Giygas and Paula gasped at the stunning revelation. After a second, though, Paula gave a grin. Things had changed. Giygas was about to launch another attack when he sensed another attack coming in. He looked to his right and found stream of blue orbs of energy rushing towards him. He barely managed to get his shield up to block the incoming stars before they struck. Again, though, there was something different about this attack. This attack managed to knock down his shields a level, something that an initial barrage of such an attack had been unable to do beforehand. Giygas glanced over at the scene and found Poo standing by Ness, his hands outstretched.
"So Giygas was loyal to the PSI Aliens after all," he said in a low, hard voice. "I should have seen it before now. Ness did." Paula and Jeff quickly went to Poo's side and the three formed a united front against Giygas, protecting Ness from any of his advances.
"Move out of my way," Giygas commanded. "Ness is the strongest of you and as such, he must die, one way or the other."
The others did not budge, though. Paula merely extended her psychic shield over Ness and replied coldly, "You'll have to get through us first."
Giygas grinned. "That can be accomplished fairly easily," he commented.
The Chosen Four were not intimidated by Giygas's comment. Things had changed. They were a lot more powerful now than they had been in their first battle against Giygas. And they were quite eager to show the new improvements to their power.